D CEO Healthcare hosted a breakfast forum featuring Baylor Scott & White Health’s new CEO, James “Jim” Hinton, on March 31. The hour-long discussion at Dallas’ Cityplace Tower touched on Hinton’s adjustment to Dallas, the effectiveness of various health plans, and the pace of technology and innovation in the healthcare system.

Addressing his recent move to Dallas from New Mexico, Hinton joked that the biggest difference is there is “more traffic and better sports” in North Texas. In New Mexico, Hinton served for more than two decades as CEO of Albuquerque-based Presbyterian Health Services, where he implemented the Presbyterian Health Plan, a leadership program in collaboration with Intel, and an executive plan with Hospital at Home.

“At Presbyterian, we had a relationship with Intel,” Hinton said. “We created relationships with providers and large employers.”

He described the Intel model as eventually successful—“We had a clinic on-site that was open to employees and dependents”—but he recalled one early memorable meeting with the company’s executives. “They said, ‘If our chips had as many problems as healthcare, we would’ve been out of business a long time ago,’ ” he said.

To enhance the healthcare market in Dallas-Fort Worth and move from a fee-for-service to a more value-based care model, Hinton advocated a three-pronged approach. “The three legged-stool of value creation is high quality, low cost, and great access,” he said.

An example of great access, Hinton said, would be Baylor Scott & White’s newly opened convenient care clinic in Oak Cliff. The system has partnered with Tom Thumb to bring care clinics to areas that need primary care or treatment for chronic diseases.

Onc crucial aspect of reforming healthcare in North Texas is implementing innovative technology to provide virtual health services for customers, Hinton said. “Encrypted messages and payment…all those need to be digitized. Technology will change how healthcare is delivered,” he said. “Healthcare has to evolve from a do-to to a do-with system. Partnerships with patients are vital.”

While he acknowledged that Texas is behind the curve on implementing telemedicine, he predicted that virtual health will “absolutely be a part of the system in the future–but, it will be segmented down to uses.”

Hinton believes “the future” of healthcare is available and accessible in North Texas, but it just “isn’t evenly distributed” yet. “There’s a degree of engagement here I haven’t seen,” Hinton said. “All the ingredients exist. We just have to figure out the puzzle.”